SHARE

Ramalinga Raju-led promoters hardly have any stake in Satyam Computer Services, the tech company that hogged the headlines in the past three weeks for all wrong reasons. The founders now hold only 3.6 per cent in the company after the sale of pledged shares by some of their lenders. Satyam promoters are in the dock after their failed attempt to buy into two promoter-group owned real estate companies – Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure – for $1.6 billion.

The latest seller is IL&FS Trust Company, which said in an announcement to the stock exchanges that it has sold 2.45 crore shares which were held on behalf of debenture holders and lenders such as DSP Merrill Lynch, DSP Blackrock, Deutsche Bank, HDFC Mutual Fund and IL&FS Financial Services. The shares have been sold since December 23, days after the investors and media raked up corporate governance issues at India’s fourth largest tech company.

The stake held by promoters-led by Raju has been showing a drastic decrease from 2001 when they held 25.60 per cent. It was 22.26 per cent by the end of March, 2002; 20.74 per cent in 2003; 17.35 per cent in 2004; 15.67 per cent in 2005; 14.02 per cent in 2006; 8.79 in 2007 and 8.74 in 2008.

Now it seems Raju’s promoter company SRSR Holdings has pledged almost all of its stake in Satyam with lenders. It’s not clear what the promoters have done with the capital they have raised by pledging shares.

The current sale of shares by IL&FS would have netted the lenders about Rs 400 crore while the borrowing was about Rs 500 crore. The share price of Satyam had taken a huge knock following the controversy bringing down its value.

Upcoming Events

Follow Us on Twitter

“It’s not clear what the promoters have done with the capital they have raised by pledging shares.”

I read this article in the morning and just now received an email with the letter Mr. Raju sent to his board informing them about his resignation and committing to the fraud. He mentions that all the money he raised by pledging his his shares were used to keep the wheels moving and pay salaries at Satyam which has inflated profits and cash balances!